The production of crystallized sugar from raw sugarcane is well known. Furthermore, the development of equipment and associated processes for producing sugar from sugarcane stalks has been extensive. Generally, sugar product is produced from a naturally occurring liquid contained within the cells of raw sugarcane stalks.
In many places throughout the world, and especially in Latin America, this naturally-occurring juice contained in the cells of sugarcane stalks is highly regarded as a beverage. In Latin America, this natural juice product is commonly referred to as “guarapo.” The term “guarapo,” which carries the unmistakable sonority of its Quechuan origin, has become part of the Spanish lexicon to identify and define arguably the most pleasant and truly popular beverage in South America, Fresh guarapo has long been regarded as a healthy beverage which, in addition to providing thirst-quenching refreshment, is believed to have attributes that improve and enhance sexual performance. In fact, songs mitten by grateful Latin Americans having firsthand knowledge of its gifts have become an integral part of Latin American folklore.
The present applicant, in his issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,153 (the entire contents of which are incorporated-by-reference herein) taught an improved method for processing raw sugarcane to produce a consumable sugarcane juice, which overcame significant shelf-life limitations of then state-of-the-art sugarcane processing methods. Prior to applicant's aforementioned patented invention, there were no known methods for efficiently producing a natural guarapo product having an adequate shelf life to support commercial distribution thereof. In his '153 patent, the present applicant teaches a novel method for producing a stabilized natural sugarcane juice product having an adequate shelf life to enable commercial distribution, without requiring addition of unnatural chemical additives, such as acids, during juice processing.
Since the time of applicant's initial invention (i.e. as disclosed in applicant's '153 patent), there has been a dramatic increase in the occurrence of dangerously high blood cholesterol levels in humans. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (i.e. the CDC) currently estimates that 73.5 million adults in the United States alone, or 31.7% of the adult population of the United States, have unhealthy low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, which the medical community has well established cause a host of health-related problems in humans. Furthermore, the CDC has indicated that only 29.5% (i.e. less than one-third) of adults with high LDL cholesterol have the condition under control. People with high total cholesterol levels have approximately twice the risk of heart disease as people with ideal total cholesterol levels.
The pharmaceutical industry has addressed the high-cholesterol problem by continuing to develop a host of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as “statins,” including those sold under the brand names LIPITOR, PRAVACHOLD, CRESTOR, ZOCOR, LESCOL and VYTORIN, to name just a few examples. Statins are a class of medicines that are used to lower blood cholesterol levels by blocking the action of an enzyme in the liver that is necessary for making cholesterol. Cholesterol is necessary for normal cell and body function, but above normal, or high, LDL and total cholesterol levels can lead to atherosclerosis, a condition in which cholesterol-containing plaques build up in the arteries and block blood flow. By reducing blood cholesterol levels, statins reduce the risk of chest pain (i.e. angina), heart attack, and stroke. However, there are numerous well-documented risks and side effects associated with such pharmaceutical statin drugs. Most people who take statins have undesirable side effects, including, but not limited to, headaches, pins-and-needles sensation, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, nausea, and skin rashes. Furthermore, it has been found that some statin drugs may impair memory and increase the risk for development of cataracts, in addition to causing more serious side effects such as liver failure and skeletal muscle damage. Additionally, a significant segment of the high-cholesterol population is advised against taking statins, including people with progressive liver disease, and pregnant and breast-feeding women (or those intending to become pregnant).
Concurrently, there has been an increasing awareness throughout the medical community that policosanol, a naturally-occurring ingredient of raw sugarcane, has shown growing promise as an effective remedy for the treatment of unhealthy elevated blood cholesterol levels in humans. Researchers have found that policosanols contained in raw sugarcane stalks are remarkably effective and very safe for reducing levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), a component of cholesterol that is known to cause a host of health-related problems at elevated levels in individuals. While policosanol is a naturally-occurring component of sugarcane, chemically speaking, it is completely unrelated to sugar. Sugar and policosanol just happen to come from the same plant. The effectiveness of policosanol in the treatment of high cholesterol levels has proven to be so remarkable that initial estimates of the recommended daily intake of policosanol required to efficiently and effectively reduce above-normal LDL and total cholesterol levels is miniscule.
Policosanol is a type of alcohol. More particularly, “policosanol” is the collective name referring to a group of related solid alcohols (i.e. long-chain primary aliphatic saturated alcohols). Policosanol is known to improve blood lipids, and research studies documenting its highly beneficial effects on human cholesterol levels are continually being published. Medical research and studies have proven that policosanol reduces low-density lipoprotein (LDL)—commonly referred to as “bad cholesterol”—while simultaneously increasing high-density lipoprotein (HDL)—commonly referred to as “good cholesterol.” Additional benefits of policosanol in the treatment of high cholesterol and a host of other health-related issues, as well as an in-depth description of how policosanol functions to provide such incredible health benefits, may be found, for example, in an Internet article available at www.life-enhancement.com/magazine/article/710-policosanol-improves-every-meastures-of-blood-cholesterol) and entitled: Policosanol Improves Every Measure of Blood Cholesterol, the entire contents of which are incorporated-by-reference herein. Ongoing medical and scientific research and corresponding studies strongly suggest that policosanol is more highly effective than synthetically-derived pharmaceuticals for treating high blood pressure. Furthermore, a particular policosanol compound, known as “octacosanol,” has been found to provide additional health benefits, including treating insomnia caused by stress, improving athletic performance, and treating symptoms of Parkinson's disease, in addition to having anti-cancer properties (e.g., reduced/slowed tumor growth).
Significantly, octacosanol is the most prevalent policosanol component occurring naturally in epicuticular sugarcane stalk wax. Policosanol is a mixture of essential alcohols isolated from sugarcane wax (Saccharum officinarum L.) that consists of different components, with octacosanol representing 66% almost two-thirds) of such policosanol components.
Consequently, the ability to efficiently and effectively process a variety of highly-stable sugarcane juice products for human consumption while maximizing the preservation of policosanols in the raw sugarcane being processed has the potential to provide a means of enabling individuals with high cholesterol levels to consume such a small daily quantity of such a product that the respective corresponding sugar intake would be well within the maximum sugar intake recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has recommended a maximum daily sugar intake for adults of five percent (5%) of total daily caloric intake. For a normal weight adult, that is about 25 grams of sugar per day.
Unfortunately, the development of an efficient, repeatable, cost-effective commercial method for maximizing the extraction of policosanols from raw sugarcane during production of a stable natural consumable sugarcane juice product has proven elusive. Accordingly, there has been a long felt, yet unmet, need for a repeatable, reliable, and cost-effective method of processing raw sugarcane to produce a highly stable policosanol-rich consumable sugarcane juice product on a commercial scale. Such a method would provide a means for producing a natural cholesterol-lowering consumable product at such a low cost that it could be made readily available to all individuals; particularly, the millions of people that currently do not have the financial means to afford existing pharmaceutical drugs. Furthermore, such a method would provide a healthy alternative to drugs manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry that are known to have negative health side effects.
Accordingly, applicant began experimenting with alternative sugarcane processing methods for producing a variant of his stabilized sugarcane juice product, which maximizes the preservation of the policosanols naturally stored in the cells of the pre-processed raw sugarcane used to produce his shelf stable sugarcane juice. Following extensive research and experimentation, applicant has discovered a variation of the sugarcane processing method originally disclosed in his above-identified issued (U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,153), which overcomes the aforementioned challenges by providing a repeatable, efficient, and highly cost-effective process for the commercial production of a policosanol-rich, stable, consumable product from raw sugarcane. Furthermore, applicant's process enables the production of such policosanol-rich, stable, consumable products in a variety of forms including, for example, a ready-to-drink (i.e. potable) juice beverage, a concentrate that can be used as a sweetener to be added to an existing beverage, and a highly-concentrated nutraceutical, to name just a few.